Catholic Leadership in the Workplace

Our walk and talk leads the way for our faith light to shine

Business is a vocation, and a noble vocation, provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life; this will enable them truly to serve the common good.

Pope Francis

ORLANDO, Fla. — My wife Linda and I were honored to be invited by the Diocese and Bishop Mike Sis to attend the Convocation of Catholic Leaders held this July in Orlando, Florida. The premise of the convocation is based on Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium, which calls all Catholics to be missionary disciples and share the Gospel, especially to those on the periphery. During the convocation, besides the inspiring plenary sessions, various breakout sessions were held on how we as Catholics can go to the peripheries and be missionary disciples. One of the sessions I attended dealt with missionary discipleship and business leadership. My work often puts me in touch with many business people during the week.

For those of us in the business world or who work with business leaders, we can see the opportunity to be missionaries to the “business family,” composed of our employees, peers, vendors and customers. We have opportunities to put people — not just the dollar — at the center of our businesses, while still having market excellence and a successful business. We can do this by treating employees well and looking out for their interests. We can be kind and supporting to our peers and colleagues. We can treat our vendors with respect and fairness. We can have fair and honest dealings with our customers by also looking out for their interests. And finally, we can work on humility by realizing we are not entitled to nor do we deserve the rewards in business such as money, power and influence, rather they are all gifts from God for us to use in life-giving stewardship.

In the business world, we typically don’t consider those we encounter as being on the peripheries of society. They are usually not shunned, live in poverty, face racism, or are without hope. What we do find are those who live on the “spiritual periphery.” They often worship sales, profit, glory, power and influence above all else and have lost their way spiritually. Phrases like “The ends justify the means,” “It’s my way or the highway,” “Do it or else,” are all too common.

What is our call to action to become missionary disciples in the business world? One suggestion is to start informal chapters of Catholic Business Networks made up of business leaders, owners and managers in the various deaneries of the diocese. These deaneries are San Angelo, Midland/Odessa, and Abilene.

Networks in the three major deaneries could involve a monthly or quarterly gathering of business leaders to discuss how, as Catholic business leaders, we can help each other live out missionary discipleship in the business environment, remind one another of our servant leadership and valuesbased leadership, and how we can be witnesses of discipleship in business.

I hope you will view this as a calling by God to be missionaries in the spiritual periphery we call business. For more information on this and to discuss starting a Catholic Business Network in your city, please contact me at daviderickson@verizon.net.

May your discipleship in your business be a light and blessing to all you encounter. God bless you.